Elements of Socialism: A Text-Book

Advantages of large scale production: The industrial
revolution demonstrated the overwhelming advantages of
division of labor and power machinery over the old handicraft system. With the improvement of transportation
facilities the early form of the factory system is in turn
supplanted by a system of large scale production whose
units are immense factories, often employing thousands of
hands. Large scale production saves in the purchasing of
raw materials and in the application of power. Materials
and coal can be purchased in train loads cheaper than in
car loads. Five thousand horsepower costs much less than
ten times as much as five hundred horsepower. Large scale
production makes possible the use of expensive machinery and the attainment of a high degree of mechanical
efficiency in consequence.

The labor cost is relatively less. Greater subdivision of
labor makes larger production possible. The cost of superintendence is relatively lower, and the whole organization can
be made more efficient and more nearly perfect than would
be possible with production on a small scale. Different
grades and kinds of goods can be made in different plants
belonging to the same concern, and each plant can run continuously on the same grade, thus saving the cost of changing
machinery. By-products can be fully utilized. The butcher
who kills three or four animals a week can use nothing but
the best parts of the meat and the hide, but in a great packing
house not an ounce of material need be wasted. Petroleum
could be distilled on a small scale, but the residuum would
be wasted and only the kerosene used. In a Standard Oil
refinery the petroleum yields not only kerosene and gasoline,
but also lubricating oils, paraffine, aniline dyes, coal tar,
vaseline, drugs of many kinds, and even the chief constitu-

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